Is Zion Williamson the Most Exciting College Basketball Player of All Time?

My name is Aaron Tobin-Hess and basketball is my first love. Many of you know me from my various columns on here, mostly where I give NFL picks and make people money in the process (not to brag but I am on a bit of a heater. 12-2-1 in my last 15 picks. You can read my picks for week 10 here but at my core I am a basketball guy. It's the best sport on earth.

To me NBA basketball is where it's at. Currently, in my not so humble opinion, the NBA is the best pro sports league in all the land. The NBA allows its stars to shine, there is a ridiculous amount of talent right now in the league and NBA twitter is just amazing. Adam Silver is the best commissioner in sports and his product shows it.

My "relationship" with college basketball is a little more complicated. I love March Madness as much as anyone (the first Thursday and Friday of the NCAA tournament are two of the best days of the year) but the college game is tough to watch for most part. The game is slower, the players aren't as good and it is still dominated by the coaches; they are still the dominant personalities in the sport as opposed to the players. Personally, I only watch (and really monitor) college basketball early in year in order to watch the top NBA prospects. There are very few college players that transcend the sport and have my attention early in the season, but currently the Duke Blue Devils have one.

Zion Williamson has been a sensation for years now. Basketball fans have seen his high school highlights for what seems like five years (shout out to house of highlights; a wonderful site). He is a college freshman with over 1.4 million Instagram followers. Over 1.4 MILLION. That's a crazy number. In high school, Zion looked like a grown man playing against middle school children. His size and athleticism was just on another level; he's 285 pounds with a 45 inch vertical. Guys that size aren't supposed to have nimble feet and be able to move the way he does; he's legit a freak of nature. When he committed to Duke to play with other top recruits Cam Reddish and RJ Barrett, college basketball fans had mixed reactions; some were mad at the embarrassment of riches for Duke and some were just excited to see the top talent play together.

Now, there were questions regarding Zion's game translating to the next level. Is his jump shot good enough? Is he tall enough to be a power forward given his weight? What position is he really? There was also the question regarding his eligibility; reports had surfaced that his family had asked for a payment of $100,000 dollars and an apartment from Kansas University to have Zion commit there (yet he went to Duke for free? Really? Hmmmm). Whatever; that's college basketball. It's a messy, complicated system that needs to change. That is for another time; I will not get into all the issues in this blog. Basketball fans both NBA and college ball fans, just wanted to see Zion play against better competition and see how he would fair. Well, this past Tuesday night we got a chance to see it live, against a top five team in Kentucky (sporting their own great recruiting class). And then the game tipped off, and well, Zion and the Duke Blue Devils put on a fucking show.

There were six or seven top 15 recruits in the UK-Duke game and Duke looked like a varsity team playing against the JV. Duke ended up winning 118-84; to score 118 points in a college game is insane. The highly touted trio of freshman for the Blue Devils, Reddish, Barrett, and Zion, scored 83 points between them. These three guys may be the top three picks in this up-coming NBA draft but the story was Zion.

Zion shot 11/13, scored 28 points, seven rebounds and two assists. He made a three and had two blocked shots. He played a perfect game but you could look at the box score and see the eye popping stats and it wouldn't even tell you an eighth of the story.

The athleticism was next level. Zion looks like a love child of Charles Barkley, Shawn Kemp and Ben Simmons. The announcers who were calling the game legitimately had no words; a freshmen left them speechless. Jay Bilas of ESPN had an boner the entire night from what was going on. The one sequence that summed up the night was when Zion engulfed a shot on one end, pushed the ball himself and then threaded the needle on a bounce pass that led to a layup, and one, for RJ Barrett. It left my jaw on the floor. The combination of pure power, athletic powers, finesse and skill in that 10 seconds was like nothing i have ever seen before in a college game. The fact that he is that big and has the footwork he has plus the point guard level passing and handles, well, he's basically a member of the X-Men.

I have never been so excited for a college player. Kevin Durant and Gregg Oden didn't move the excitement needle quite like Zion; Anthony Davis didn't either. I wasn't alive to watch the great Pete Maravich play for LSU or David Thompson at NC State or even Patrick Ewing Georgetown. Allen Iverson was exciting but not like this. This is a whole different type of beast; in more ways than one and he may not be the best NBA prospect on his own team!!!!!! (RJ Barrett is ranked number one at the moment.)

I don't like Duke; I am a UNC fan. I am not just supposed to dislike Duke, I am supposed to HATE Duke. But this year that is going to be damn near impossible. Watching Zion this season (as well as Barrett and Reddish) is must see TV. He's a walking highlight. This Duke team isn't your typical unlikable Duke team. These guys are badasses and are so fun to watch and they have a legit chance to go undefeated this season (something that hasn't been done since 1976).

If Zion have a decent jump shot, it just needs be decent, he will be the number one pick in the draft. He's too unique a player to pass up and I for one can not wait to see how this unfolds and I spoke all about it on episode 36 of the podcast (subscribe and share below).